Mulengro: A Romany Tale [Special Limited Edition] [Hardcover]

Charles De Lint (Author), Ed Gorman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1995

Small press edition, published 10 years after the original mass market edition. New forward by Ed Gorman, expanded author's note. The Darkside Press edition is the first hardback printing of Mulengro.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Darkside Press; First Thus edition (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940841592
• ISBN-13: 978-0940841598
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,127,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gypsy Catharsis, January 7, 2005

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mulengro (Paperback)

This book stands out from most of de Lint's canon of work by being mainly a horror novel. Okay, dark fantasy really, but it scares you badly and reminds you why you love being alive, because it could disappear so quickly.

This book, first released in 1985, predates Newford, but one could imagine it fitting in with that setting. When Ottawa's close-knit Gypsy community begins dying violently, several independent story threads originate, convering on a cabin in the woods where an apocalyptic showdown determines whether the punishments of the Third Reich continue into the contemporary world.

Briggs and Sandler, Ottawa municipal police, want to bring the killer to justice. Janfri la Yayal, a Gypsy fiddler, wants to clear his name. Ola Pifer knows she's an imminent target. Jeff Owen, Dr. Rainbow, and Yojo la Kore want to stand up for the people they love. And the mysterious Mulengro wants to purge his people.

This reads like something Stephen King might have written back before his work became tiresome and repetetive. The further along you get, the harder it becomes to put the book down. Nothing feels extraneous, nothing feels like a misfire. This is a prime book for people who have never touched fantasy, horror, or Charles de Lint in their lives.

The substantial Gypsy content is key to the story. Many people demand accuracy in this sort of thing, but the Gypsies are so notoriously secretive that fact-checking isn't an issue. What matters is this: I can imagine these characters, in these situations, performing exactly these actions.

It's amazing, with the slim amount of narrative and the beautifully cinematic characters and situations, that this hasn't been adapted before now. Perhaps soon. Modern technology could turn this into the most beautiful dark fantasy film in history, no problem.

Easily readable and worth a second look, this book is one that will become a treasured part of your library in short order.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Edge-of-your-seat horror, February 8, 2004

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mulengro (Paperback)

Mulengro, a long out-of-print novel by Charles de Lint, has been reissued -- and it's about time. The story focuses on the Rom, modern gypsies living in Canada, who -- despite some modern adaptations, such as big, gas-guzzling cars instead of caravan wagons -- continue to live outside the mainstream: secretive, mysterious and distrustful of strangers.

But, insular or not, de Lint has written about the Rom society like a native, delving deeply into customs, traditions and psyches -- and mysticism, an exotic belief system very different from the Celtic and Native American mythologies more frequently tapped in de Lint's work.

The novel unfolds as a killer stalks Rom and Gaje alike; the murders grow increasingly horrific and bloody, and a solution to the threat he presents seems increasingly elusive. The climax is a whirlwind of violence -- readers may be shocked by some plot developments along the way -- but the ultimate closure comes abruptly. The final twist is startling and is not the ending I expected -- but de Lint knows what he's doing, and the desperation of the concluding pages feels appropriate to the circumstance.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romany (Gypsy) slant on urban fantasy, December 25, 2005

By 

Julia Starkey (Medford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mulengro (Paperback)

Mulengro is unusual for an urban fantasy book because Romany people (aka gypsies) are at the center of the story. De Lint, as usual, does a masterful job of making Romany magic work in a modern world and in the context of a city setting. One gets a sense of the gritty and some what grim life of modern Rom, and why they continue to be resistant to a "proper" modern settled life. Mulengro can be dark but is ultimately hopeful.

This book was originally published in 1985 and is in no way dated. It deals with different subject matter than his Newford books, but has the same immediacy to it.